Human Trafficking: Switzerland signs N10milion agreement with ANEEJ

BENIN CITY, NIGERIA. April 16, 2020…. The Embassy of Switzerland has signed a ten million Naira (N10million) agreement with the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) a leading Civil Society Organisation in Nigeria to combat human trafficking and irregular migration in Edo State.

The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency
Mr. Georg Steiner who signed the agreement on behalf of Switzerland in a letter
to ANEEJ today said his country was providing a ten million Naira grant for
ANEEJ to implement “Tackling human trafficking through advocacy to increase
investment on Human Capital Development” in Edo State.

Mr. Steiner further said the approved grant
agreement covers a period of 9 April to 01 December 2020.

Executive Director of the Africa Network for
Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), the Rev David Ugolor who signed the
agreement on behalf of his organization expressed deep gratitude to the Swiss
government for providing the grant to his organization to address some critical
issues of migration and human trafficking in Nigeria.

Rev Ugolor said: “The project is to generate data that will provide
evidence to support Public Policy in combating irregular migration as well as
strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to advocate for
increased investment in Human Capital Development through budget monitoring
that will promote transparency and accountability in public spending needed to
engender good governance and sustainable development.

The
ANEEJ boss who expressed the organisation’s gratitude to Switzerland Embassy in
Nigeria for their continued support said “the goal of the project is to improve the
knowledge of Citizens, media and Policy Makers around the issues of good
governance and Open Budgetary processes that support civic engagement,
noting that with increased transparency in public
spending which the project seeks to achieve, there will be more investment in education and
the health sector which will help address the current poor funding associated
with public spending in the social sector.

“We are hitting the ground going with the
project as we have an in-house COVID 19 guideline which covers the new contract
for our migration work. This project is very dear to us as many citizens of Edo
State have either been victims of human trafficking or irregular migration and
the project will meet the aspirations of beneficiaries,” adds Ms Sandra
Eguagie, ANEEJ’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.